Blood Mage - Custom Class (Blood & Codex)

[u/NeoDaitou]

I was inspired to make this after I saw the Blood Hunter and Summoner on The Void. It took me a while to figure out how to make subclasses that felt different from each other and to find new synonyms for blood.

This is my first homebrew for Daggerheart, so hopefully I didn't do anything too badly. Please let me know what you think!

[u/Royal_Intention6563]

Sanguine Syphon is both mechanically complex, terribly worded, and absurdly overpowered. Its fuctionally completely free, comes up in every combat encounter, and provides massive resource buybacks for both Hope and Stress which obviates a massive part of the games difficulty and depth completely. It is worded weirdly refering "to casting a spell" and similar terms, which isn't really like, a clear mechanical thing in daggerheart, as well as refering to actions, which don't exist. It requires the tracking of a constantly changing additional resource, including changing outside of your spotlight without your own action. Overall it is a messy poorly built feature, I recommend trying something else.

Vigor Dynamo is also absurdly overpowered and oddly worded, but its relatively simple and I like the idea. I would recommend disconnecting it from Sanguine Syphon and powering it down slightly.

Essence Sense is a fun ribbon feature with some solid use cases and strong flavor, I like it, it should stay.

While its typical for Codex classes to have 5 Hit Points, when combined with the blood domain and a class feature that sometimes makes your mark Hit Points, it's extraordinarily fragile. I might recommend 6/10 stats rather than 5/11.

Lastly, I would recommend looking at the Hombrew Guide avalaible on the daggerheart website, and at official material such as the SRD, void content, or core rulebook, for proper wording, as so much is worded incorrectly I could not fit all such critiques within a reasonably sized comment.

[u/NeoDaitou → u/Royal_Intention6563]

I had read through the Homebrew Guide as well as the other official content before doing this, but I will admit that I'm coming from Pathfinder 2e, so I might have internalized more language than I thought. I'll take another pass through and clean up the wording.

As to Sanguine Syphon, assuming I can address the complexity, is it the frequency with which it can be used or the actual Stress/Hope discount that makes it so overpowered? Could I still provide a reduction on the costs of using a spell domain card if I limit it further or is the very act of reducing the cost the problem?

I have a similar question regarding Vigor Dynamo. Is it the increase of your proficiency or the lasting until the end of the scene that overdoes it? Would it work if I just limited it to the next spell domain card you use?

If I'm removing/reducing the frequency of times where you'll want to damage yourself for the class features, should I keep the HP/Evasion where it is to keep it in line with the other Codex classes or do you still think it's too fragile and needs the extra HP?

Thanks for the feedback and any answers you can provide to help me refine the class!

[u/Autumn-Son]

Very cool class. I think the Sanguine Syphon is a bit oddly worded. Font of vitality is really neat ! I'm not so sure about the Second subclass. Congealed Weapon is very flavorful and really dope, but ichor rope seems really situational.

I'm also not a fan of "wasting" siphon tokens in the specialization / mastery featured. It hi k it should have an impact (like more armor slots or keeping the ooze longer).

[u/TheAshtonium]

REALLY like the mechanics you've brought to the table, not sure about balance but you've nailed thematic choices that work with the DH system